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The survey collected responses from 1500 AAPI residents throughout Los Angeles County between Nov. 8 and Dec. 24 of last year. Residents were polled either online or by phone. According to the census bureau, LA County had about 1,582,213 AAPI-identifying residents as of 2020.
On the subject of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, 80% of respondents said that anti-Asian racism has been serious during the pandemic. Furthermore, two-thirds expressed worry about hate crimes while the remaining third said they were not very worried.
Among the AAPI demographics polled, Chinese, Japanese and Filipino were the most worried about hate crimes.
A quarter of respondents reported having been a victim of a hate crime during the pandemic. Younger native born AAPI were more likely to report being a victim of a hate crime compared to the older populations and foreign born AAPI. Reports of having experienced a hate crime seemed to be consistent across national origin, with Korean and Japanese reporting the most.
Similar results were reported across gender in response to the question of whether they had been a victim of a hate crime, with 74% of men and 77% of women saying no.
Half of those surveyed shared they had experienced racial discrimination of some kind, with Chinese and Japanese reporting having experienced the most, at 52% and 59% respectively. Results also indicated that discrimination occurred the most in the workplace, schools and grocery stores.
The survey also found that a majority of respondents thought police funding should remain the same or be increased a little rather than decreased. Indian and Chinese Americans were most in favor of the status quo funding, with 48% and 50% respectively indicating funding should stay the same. While not many respondents overall supported a decrease in funding, Indians also represented the highest percentage of respondents in favor, with a total of 26% indicating they thought funding should be decreased by either a little or a lot.
This study helps shed light on how the AAPI community is affected and how they are feeling. Additionally, the study provides insight from AAPI regarding if they want more or less police funding. The data from the survey offers insight for potential future policies or actionable steps to help the communities whose voices need to be heard the most right now.
